stormchaser

There are few things more exciting than a car in the middle of a storm chase, with clouds overhead and adrenaline pumping.

Terrifying footage of an occupied home being washed away in Florida by Hurricane Ian has been captured by storm chaser Max Olson.

A drone managed to stay aloft while it recorded the colossal damage caused by a tornado that devastated a Kansas neighborhood last Friday.

Storm-chasing photographer Mike Olbinski has released a gorgeous 4-minute short film that compiles timelapses of epic dust storms that have swept through his home of Phoenix, Arizona, over the past decade.

Photographer Michael Shainblum has shared the behind-the-scenes footage of capturing picturesque monsoon formations as well as a powerful and dramatic lightning storm, all shot on a Sony 16-35mm f/4 lens.

Two storm chasing photographers have shared a fascinating behind-the-scenes look into what it takes to get the perfect shot in unpredictable and often dangerous weather conditions. As you can see in the 13-minute video above, this type of photography is not for beginners or the faint-hearted.

Photographer Mitch Dobrowner's work is what you get when you combine storm chasing photography with fine art photography. His awe-inspiring black-and-white photos show dramatic storms over sweeping landscapes.

Storm chaser Brian Emfinger was shooting aerial footage of a tornado near Yazoo City, Mississippi when it moved towards him and his drone. While the footage is incredible, Emfinger says the storm "nearly got" him, and his drone was lost.

Storm-chasing photographer and filmmaker Martin Lisius wanted to demonstrate the danger of flying debris in a tornado, so he got scientists to fire a camera out of a tornado projectile test cannon at 264mph. As you can see from the 1.5-minute video above, the camera doesn't fare too well.

I’ve been photographing extreme weather for 25 years. After publishing tips on how to photograph lightning here back in March, I was asked to share any tips I have in capturing an award-winning tornado image. So, here I go…

Photographer Ron Risman has created a video that he calls "The Most Spectacular 2.5 Minutes of Lightning." It shows a powerful lightning storm in Kansas synchronized with music.

"Vorticity" is a new time-lapse short film by Mike Olbinski, a storm-chasing wedding photographer based in Phoenix, Arizona. Olbinski spent 18 days driving 20,000 miles across 9 states and shooting 60,000 frames to create what you see in the 6-minute video above.

They say that a dog is man’s best friend and I wholeheartedly agree. Not only are they loyal, forgiving, compassionate, and much more, but in my case, my dog shares my passion with me.

Storm chaser and time-lapse photographer Mike Olbinski has been turning his camera lens on the monsoon in Arizona for about 7 years, and this past summer he spent a whopping 48 days chasing storms. After 17,000 miles driven and 105,000 photos captured, Olbinski combined 55,000 of the best shots into the eye-popping time-lapse video above, titled "Monsoon II."

A powerful storm rumbled by Simla, Colorado, last week, and at the scene was professional storm-chasing photographer Kelly DeLay, who captured this "shot of a lifetime" showing a massive supercell storm cloud extending twin tornados to the ground below.

Mitch Dobrowner is a fine art photographer based in Studio City, California. Born on Long Island (Bethpage) New York he as have a wife (Wendy), 3 kids, a dog... and in his words, a bratty cat.

His work has been published by National Geographic Magazine, ABC News, TIME Magazine, Newsweek, CNN, NPR, Audubon Society, LA Times and LensWork, among others. Google recently produced a 2 minute commercial revolving around his work for their Search Stories campaign.

One week ago today, on June 3rd, a massive storm rolled through Nebraska where storm chasing photographer Mike Hollingshead -- whose work we've feature before on PetaPixel -- was prepared to chase down some likely tornadoes.

He didn't end up finding or chasing any tornadoes, but a storm he chose to leave behind earlier in the day in order to pursue his main target ended up turning into an incredibly powerful hail and wind storm, and doing some hard-to-believe damage to Hollingshead's own home town. He, of course, documented it all with his camera the next day.

You might not come out on top if you weigh the pros and cons of storm chasing, but there are definitely pros beyond feeling like a bada** and a deep fulfillment of your twin passions for meteorology and spiking your adrenaline. If you want proof of that, just check out the awe-inspiring photography of storm chaser Mike Hollingshead.

Here's an advanced tip for all you would-be stormchasers: Watch out for the water.

That seemingly obvious proposition apparently escaped a couple of British photographers in one of the better photobombs to emerge from Europe's not-quite-a-hurricane.

Tornadoes can be simultaneously awe-inspiring and terrifying (as an Alabama resident for the past 6 years, I can attest to that), and this time-lapse captures ten of them in action, including a mile-wide EF4. Fortunately, the majority of the tornadoes caught on camera during this chase missed (sometimes barely) major towns and cities. If you wanna get right into the action, the good stuff starts around 3:45.

Fine art photographer Mitch Dobrowner wanted to photograph storm systems, so he partnered up with Roger Hill -- regarded as one of the top storm-chasers in the world -- and was introduced to Tornado Alley. Dobrowner writes,

Words are inadequate to describe the experience of photographing this immense power and beauty. And the most exciting part is with each trip I really don’t know what to expect. But now I see these storms as living, breathing things. They are born when the conditions are right, they gain strength as they grow, they fight against their environment to stay alive, they change form as they age… and eventually they die. They take on so many different aspects, personalities and faces; I'm in awe watching them. These storms are amazing sights to witness.... and I’m just happy to be there—shot or no shot; it's watching Mother Nature at her finest. My only hope my images can do justice to these amazing phenomenona of nature.

His images certainly do them justice -- the stormy landscape photographs Dobrowner has made through these trips are jaw-dropping.

Ryan McGinnis is a photographer and storm chaser. You can visit his website here.

PetaPixel: Can you tell us a little about yourself and your background?

Ryan McGinnis: I am a storm chaser and photographer who lives in Nebraska; I have no formal training in photography outside of all the books I've read and the thousands of rolls of film I've blown through (and terabytes of drives I've filled up) over the years. I've had a life-long love affair with the weather; from as young as I can remember, I've been fascinated with storms and for most of my childhood I dreamed of one day chasing tornadoes. Living in this part of the country makes storm chasing less of a chore than if I had to drive here from, say, Virginia, but storm chasing here still requires lots of driving -- on average around 600 miles per chase. These days I tend to storm chase around 15,000 miles a year, mostly in May and June. In 2008 and 2009 I was fortunate enough to get to tag along with and photographically document Project Vortex 2, a $12M science mission to learn how tornadoes tick, which was probably one of the best freelance investments of time and money I've ever made.

When I'm not shooting storms, my favorite subjects are candids and urban panoramas.